CMS to appoint chief risk officer

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is to create a new position of chief risk officer.

Once appointed, this individual’s first assignment will be to review risk management practices when it comes to IT acquisition and contracting, starting with identifying the risk factors that impeded the successful launch of the HealthCare.gov website.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced the new post in a recent blog.

“I have asked CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner to create a new position and appoint a CMS chief risk officer, who will focus on mitigating risk across CMS’s programs,” she wrote. “This will be a full time, permanent position.

“The chief risk officer will work across CMS to asses risk management practices associated with major agency initiatives. This individual will lead efforts to prepare mitigation strategies to minimize those risks, and will develop metrics to measure the effectiveness of those strategies.”

Sebelius added that she will ask the chief risk officer to report back to her in 60 days with recommendations for strategies to mitigate risks in future large-scale, CMS contracting and IT acquisition projects.